Light a Candle
by Sara Wolfe
Summary: Spending Christmas with the Kents.


**Author's Note: **Written for the DI Holiday Ficstravaganza. Prompt was Kara.

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. If they were SV would have been all-Clois, all the time, for the last five and a half years.

**Light a Candle**

_"Light a candle in the window just for me … I'm coming home for Christmas." – Richie McDonald and Jim Brickman," Coming Home For Christmas"_

**December 25, 2007**

Her first Christmas, Kara had never even heard of the holiday. When she'd asked Kal-el (Clark, she reminded herself, sharply. He was Clark here on Earth) about all the strange decorations that had been popping up all around town, he'd tried to explain, but she had only found herself more confused when he had finished. She just couldn't understand what brightly-colored trees and a fat man in a red suit had to do with the birth of a child.

But, Clark had seemed excited about the holiday, so every time he mentioned it, she smiled and nodded eagerly, and it seemed to be enough to satisfy him. Or so she thought.

When she woke up on Christmas morning, it was because of the bright sunlight streaming in through her bedroom window. For a second she was confused, and then she realized just how late in the morning it was. She couldn't figure out why Clark had let her sleep so long; lately she'd gotten into the habit of waking up early to help Clark with the chores around the farm.

Not that he really needed the help, not when he used his powers, but she found the early morning to be peaceful and quiet, and she liked having time to spend getting to know Clark, just the two of them.

Getting dressed in the first things she grabbed out of her closet, she left her room and started down the hallway, intending to go downstairs and ask Clark why he'd let her sleep in so long. But, she froze at the top of the stairs at the sound of hushed voices coming from the living room.

Overwhelmed with curiosity, she crept quietly down the stairs and peeked into the living room to see what was going on. To her surprise, Clark and Lois were hanging ornaments on a tall tree sitting in front of the window.

"Why are we whispering, again?" Lois asked, suddenly, startling Kara.

"Because I don't want to wake Kara up," Clark replied, quietly.

"She's all the way upstairs and out like a light," Lois hissed back, but she obligingly kept her voice down. "You even checked on her, yourself."

"I just want this to be a surprise," Clark told her. "Kara's never celebrated Christmas, and I want her first one to be special."

"You're such a softie, Smallville," Lois said, but there was a playfully teasing note to her voice, and it brought a smile to Clark's face.

Kara found herself smiling in response. She liked seeing Clark look so happy, and lately, it seemed like Lois was the only one who brought that look to his face.

"So, where's Lana during all of this?" Lois asked, a few moments later. "I would have thought that getting into the Christmas spirit would be right up Little Miss Homemaker's alley."

Even as she cracked a grin at Lois's nickname for the other woman, Kara wondered if Clark was going to tell Lois the truth, that they'd had a fight, complete with screaming, and that Lana had stormed out in a huff three days ago.

But, Clark just shook his head in answer to Lois's question.

"This isn't really Lana's thing," he lied. "And, besides, Nell is in town, so she went to spend some time with her aunt."

"Oh," was all Lois said, even as a disapproving frown crossed her face. She looked like she could have said any number of things about Lana's behavior, but she settled on, "Her loss."

Kara couldn't help but agree with Lois. For all that she hated how much their separation was hurting Clark – and incidentally hated Lana for being the cause of that separation – she had the feeling that Lana had come off worse in their argument. She did have to admit, though, that a little peace and quiet around the house was nice for a change.

"Hey," Lois said, drawing Kara's attention back to the action in the living room. "You got a tree that's too tall, Smallville. I can't reach the top to put the star on."

She stepped away from the tree with a slightly frustrated look on her face, and Kara saw that she held a fragile-looking glass star in her hands.

"Sorry," Clark said, sheepishly. "It was the biggest one the tree farm had."

"I'm surprised that you didn't go into the woods and chop down your own tree," Lois teased, gently, and the blush on Clark's cheeks indicated that he'd certainly thought of doing so. "Well, you want to help me get it up there?" she continued, gesturing at the top of the tree with a nod.

It was clear to Kara that she meant for Clark to get a chair or a stepladder, something that she could use to reach the top of the tree. But, Clark seemed to have other ideas, at least subconsciously. He didn't even seem to think about what he was doing when he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her effortlessly into the air.

Lois let out a surprised gasp, her hands clutching convulsively at the star she was holding. The sound seemed to wake Clark up and he froze in shock, still holding Lois suspended in midair. They stayed frozen like that for several seconds, and then Lois was the first to move, leaning forward in Clark's grasp to gently place the star on the top of the tree.

"I think you can put me down, now, Smallville," she said, her voice slightly shaky.

After a long moment, and with what looked like regret on his face, Clark set Lois back on the floor, but his hands lingered on her waist for a few seconds longer than necessary – and Lois certainly made no effort to move away from his embrace.

Taking that to be as much of a cue as she was going to get, Kara stood up from the step she'd been sitting on, deliberately scuffing her feet on the floor so that they would hear her. Lois and Clark jumped away from each other like they'd been burned, both of them looking guiltily at the entrance to the living room. Kara lingered in the hallway for a few seconds longer, hearing Clark's quiet sigh of relief when he realized that they hadn't been seen.

"Guess we should get this thing finished, huh?" Lois said, deliberately trying to lighten the mood that had fallen over the two of them.

"All that's left is to plug in the tree," Clark said, a strange tone in his voice, and Kara figured that was the perfect opening.

She moved into the living room just as the tree was lit up, and her gasp of shock was completely unfeigned. She stared in astonishment at the brightly-glowing tree framed by the snow coming down outside the window.

"It's beautiful," she said, quietly, and Clark smiled happily at the praise.

"Merry Christmas, Kara," he said, crossing the room and wrapping his arms around her in a tight hug.

"Merry Christmas, Clark," she replied, and for the first time since she'd learned about the greeting, she actually meant it.

"Well, I should get going," Lois said, awkwardly, edging toward the door. "Let you two start your family celebration."

"No, stay," Kara said, quickly, taking pity on Clark who looked like he desperately wanted to protest, even thought she knew he never would.

"I shouldn't," Lois protested. "This is a family thing for you guys-"

"And that's why you should stay," Kara insisted, firmly, overriding Lois's doubtful protests with "Please, Lois?"

"Okay," Lois relented, after a moment, and Kara had to fight to hide her smirk at the relieved smile that spread across Clark's face at her words. "I'll stay for Christmas. Who wants eggnog?"

****

Reclining on the couch, Lois sipped at her glass of eggnog as she watched Clark and Kara sitting on the floor in front of the tree. As Kara carefully unwrapped the bright red paper of the present Clark had given her, it was hard to tell which Kent was more adorable. Kara was intensely focused in trying to unwrap her present without tearing the paper, and Clark seemed like a big kid, a huge grin on his face as he watched Kara.

The cushion beside her dipped down as Shelby climbed up onto the couch beside her, laying his head on her hip with a sigh. Reaching over, Lois ruffled the fur behind the dog's ears.

"Having a good Christmas, Shelbs?" she asked, getting a tail wag in response.

Clark looked over at the sound of Lois's voice, giving the dog a mock glare at the sight of Shelby lounging on the couch.

"You're in my spot," he scolded, but Shelby only yawned, clearly unimpressed.

"You snooze, you lose, Smallville," Lois teased him.

"You could always make him move," Kara suggested. "Then, you could sit by Lois all you want."

Lois wondered if she should laugh or be offended by the look of near-terror that crossed Clark's face as he looked between her and Kara. He seemed almost frozen by the suggestion, and Lois decided to take pity on him.

"Clark doesn't want to sit by me," she said, but her reassurance only seemed to make Clark even more uncomfortable.

"No, I – I do. Of course I want to sit by you, Lois," he protested, immediately, and then turned bright scarlet when he realized what he'd said. "I mean-"

By now, Kara was openly smirking at her cousin, and Lois was fighting the grin that was threatening to emerge at Clark's discomfiture.

"I know," Clark said, suddenly. "Let's go do something outside."

"Like what?" Lois asked, gesturing to where the snow was coming down outside the window, fast and heavy. "In case you haven't noticed, the weather's not that great outside."

"So, we'll have a snowball fight," Clark said, his face lighting up when both women stared at him, skeptically. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"This is crazy," Lois declared, but she grabbed her coat from where it was hanging by the door, shoving her hands into her gloves as she followed Clark out the door into the yard.

"What's a snowball fight?" Kara asked, brushing snow away from her eyes as it fell on her face.

"You make balls out of the snow and throw them at people," Lois explained, packing a loose ball to demonstrate. "Haven't you ever seen a snowball fight? I thought you grew up in Minnesota."

"You throw that at people?" Kara echoed, pointing dubiously at the snowball in Lois's hand, "and it's supposed to be fun?"

"Exactly," Lois told her. "Watch."

Lois packed the snowball a little firmer in her hands, to keep it from coming apart in midair, and then, with a conspiratorial grin at Kara, lobbed it through the air at Clark's head. It hit, perfectly, splattering all over the back of his neck, and Clark let out a stunned yelp as the icy snow fell down the back of his shirt.

"That's how it's fun," Lois said, as Kara cracked up laughing at the sight of her cousin practically dancing in an effort to get the snow out from under his shirt.

While he was still squirming, Lois fired another snowball at him, pumping a fist in the air in triumph as it hit him right in the middle of the chest.

"Lane, two," she declared, happily, "and Kent, zero!"

"Only because you cheated," Clark shot back, brushing snow off his shirt. "Just give me a chance to get some ammo-"

The snowball that hit him in the face neatly cut off his words, making him splutter and choke as he spit snow out onto the ground, and Lois turned to see Kara doing a little victory dance in the snow.

"I think that makes it girls, three," she told Clark, who wiped the snow off his face and faced his opponents with a serious expression.

"This," he said, somberly, "means war."

Dragging a hand through the snow, he scooped up a loose handful and flung it at Lois, coating her from eyebrows to chin. Another quick swipe of his hand got Kara, as well, and he smirked as the women glared at him, wiping snow away from their eyes.

"Get him," Lois said to Kara, and they rushed Clark.

Lois got there first and tackled Clark, sending him flying back into the snow. As he fell backward, he instinctively wrapped his arms around Lois, bringing her down with him. Lois sprawled against his chest with a startled grunt, and then froze, staring down into bright blue eyes. Beneath her, Clark went completely still, not even breathing.

They were frozen in the snow for what seemed like an eternity. Lois couldn't seem to pull herself away from Clark, even though she knew she should. A part of her didn't want to pull away. And from the way his arms had tightened around her waist, Clark didn't seem all too eager to move.

For one wild moment, Lois wondered if they were about to continue what they'd nearly started in front of the Christmas tree earlier that morning. Then, a cold blast exploded all over the back of her neck, and she jolted away from Clark, rolling over in the snow to glare up at Kara, who was standing over them, a second handful of snow in her hands.

"I win," she declared, happily.

Lois gaped, wordlessly, up at Kara, and then looked over at Clark who was still spitting snow out. He nodded in understanding, and they reached out, yanking Kara down into the snow between them.

"Let's call it a draw," Clark suggested.

**December 25, 2008**

Her second Christmas was spent in the Phantom Zone. She'd lost track of how much time she'd already spent in the hellish prison her uncle had created. It could have been weeks, or years, for all she knew – after a while, the days all started to run together. She remembered what time of year it had been back on Earth when she had left, but now, she couldn't have said if it was summer or winter.

So, when she woke up one morning, she decided that the day, arbitrary as it was, would be her Christmas. There were no trees growing in the Phantom Zone, at least none that she'd found, so she carefully scratched a tree on the wall of the cave she'd claimed as her own – and fought hard to keep. She watched the thin, white lines appear on the wall, under the rock in her hands, and then in a fit of what only could be called whimsy, added presents beneath the tree. She scratched Clark's and her own name on the presents, but just as quickly scratched them out when the image made hot tears spring to her eyes, blurring her vision.

She'd just settled down on the floor of the cave, admiring her makeshift Christmas scene, when she heard noises coming from outside her haven. She wanted to stay right where she was, to pretend that if she was just still enough, just quiet enough, that they wouldn't find her. But, she knew that wasn't the way the world worked – especially not the cruel world she found herself in, now.

Sneaking away from where she'd been sitting, Kara made her way down a smaller path to a secondary entrance that she'd found while scouting the cave out as a possible hiding place. She could hear footsteps behind her, and when she risked a glance behind her, she saw a pack of nameless Zoners intruding on the temporary space she'd foolishly begun to think of as home.

Then, one of the Zoners spotted her, calling out to his fellow convicts with a guttural, bloodthirsty shout. Swearing under her breath, Kara broke into a sprint, leaving her pursuers in the dust. She burst out of the cave, momentarily blinded by the harsh sunlight, and only the soft sound of shifting sand over rock warned her that she'd walked straight into an ambush. She threw herself to the side, barely avoiding the grasping hands of the Zoners.

The rest of her makeshift Christmas was spent fighting for her life, and the less said about that, the better.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

When the phone rang, Clark practically leapt across the room to answer it, snatching the handset up with a breathless, "Hello? Lois?"

"It's just me, Clark," Chloe said, apologetically, and he could hear the sympathy in his best friend's voice. "You still haven't talked to her."

"I haven't talked to Lois in nearly a week," Clark said, dejectedly. "Not since-"

"Not since you stood her up for your date?" Chloe finished for him, clearly not willing to give him even a little bit of leeway on that point.

"Not since I stood her up," Clark said, quietly. "She's been avoiding me at work; she won't even talk to me when we're working on the same assignment."

"That sounds just like Lois," Chloe said, with a quiet chuckle. "She takes giving the silent treatment to a whole new level."

Clark groaned. "Silent treatment doesn't really describe it," he grumbled.

"How about Kara?" Chloe asked, switching to what she thought was a safer topic. "Have you heard from her, yet?"

"No," Clark said, shaking his head even though Chloe couldn't see the gesture. "Kara's still out looking for Kandor. If anything's even still there."

"You don't think Kara is going to find anything?" Chloe asked.

"Krypton exploded, Chloe," Clark reminded her. "Most of it followed my shuttle to Earth in chunks. What are the chances that one city survived intact?"

"Pretty slim," Chloe agreed.

"I just hope she's okay," Clark said, quietly. "I wish I was there, looking out for her-"

"Kara's going to come home," Chloe said, catching on to what was really bothering him.

"What if she doesn't?" Clark asked.

"She will," Chloe said, firmly. "Kara will come home. And Lois is going to talk to you, again," she added, after a moment.

"Now, that, I'll believe when I see it," Clark retorted, and Chloe laughed.

"Are you sure you don't want me and Jimmy to come out to Smallville for Christmas?" she asked, and Clark shook his head.

"No," he said, "you two enjoy your first married Christmas, together. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" Chloe pressed.

"I'm sure, Chloe," Clark told her.

"Well," Chloe started, and then trailed off at the sound of a voice from her end of the line. "Clark, I've got to go," she said, after listening to Jimmy for a moment. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Bye, Chloe," Clark said, but all he got was a dial tone as she hung up, quickly.

"Guess it's just you and me, then, huh, Shelby?" he asked, looking over at the dog who was lounging on the floor in front of the fireplace. Shelby opened his jaws in a wide, sleepy yawn, and then promptly fell back asleep.

"Just me, then," Clark said, sighing as he looked around the empty house.

Then, a knock at the door startled him, and he got up to answer it. Lois was standing outside, shivering slightly in the cold, framed by the bright light of the front porch. There were snowflakes in her hair, and Clark found himself almost overcome by the urge to reach out and brush them away.

"Lois," he said, trying to hide his surprise, as he stepped back to let her come into the house. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I knew you weren't going to have much company for Christmas this year," Lois said, as she moved past him, shrugging off her heavy coat as she went. "Mrs. Kent is stuck in DC, Kara's still in Minnesota, and Chloe and Jimmy are having their own private celebration. I thought I'd come keep you company."

"Weren't Lucy and your dad supposed to be coming to Metropolis for the holidays, this year?" Clark asked, after swallowing back a demand to know why she was talking to him, now.

"Something came up," Lois said, dismissing her family's absence with a casual shrug that did little to hide the hurt Clark knew she was feeling. "Lucy's got her friends to spend Christmas with, and the General was busy with work."

"I'm sorry," Clark said, quietly.

He knew Lois's family loved her, beyond all doubt, but sometimes they could be so careless with her feelings. Not that Lois would ever tell them that what they did hurt her. She just shrugged off the pain and continued to love them, even when they didn't seem to deserve it.

And, Clark realized, he found himself sometimes falling into the same category. He wasn't sure how that made him feel, whether it affected him more that he meant enough to Lois that what he did hurt her, or that she loved him in the first place. Especially when he couldn't even sort out his own feelings for her.

"It's no big deal," Lois said, shortly, just like Clark knew she would. He wanted to offer some sort of sympathy, but he knew she'd just shrug it off, pretend it didn't matter.

"I figured," Lois rambled on, "you're alone, and I'm alone. Why not be alone together for Christmas?" After a moment of awkward silence, she added, "I even brought you a gift."

"Sounds good," Clark agreed, taking the small, newspaper-wrapped present that Lois shoved in his hands. "I'm glad you're here, Lois."

Her eyes lit up at his words, and a slow smile curved at her lips. Clark felt himself smiling in response.

**December 25, 2009**

She landed lightly on the roof of the Daily Planet, and promptly slipped on the ice that covered the surface of the roof. Picking herself back up, Kara hovered a few inches above the roof, floating over to the edge and down to the street, below. Then, gaining her balance on the equally-icy sidewalk, she walked out of the alley and around to the front entrance of the newspaper.

She'd stopped at the farm, first, when she first arrived back at Earth, but the house had been empty, with only Shelby there to greet her. It had been nice to get such an exuberant greeting from the dog, but he hadn't been the one that she wanted to see. She'd been disappointed at first to find the house dark, and a little confused as to where Clark could have been, before she remembered him talking about working at the Daily Planet the last time they saw each other. So, she'd headed immediately for Metropolis.

Stepping into the lobby of the Daily Planet, she found herself enveloped by a cloud of warmth that chased away the chill she'd felt in the few seconds she had been outside. She may not have been affected by the cold weather, but that didn't mean that she didn't feel it.

Stopping by the main desk in the front lobby, she snuck a look on the page-a-day calendar that the secretary had sitting on the desk. She was surprised to see that over a year had passed since she'd last left to find Kandor.

She didn't regret leaving to chase down the rumors she'd first heard in the Phantom Zone. She just wished there'd been something there to find. Where she'd hoped to find survivors of her home planet, she'd only found dust and ruins. The rumors of Kandor had apparently been just that – rumors. If there'd anything left of her home world at some point, it was gone, now.

So, she'd headed back to Earth, to the only home she'd known in years, and the only family she had left. Only that family didn't seem to be anywhere around.

"Can I help you?" the secretary asked, and Kara was jolted out of her thoughts.

"I'm looking for Clark Kent," she said, and the woman typed something on her computer.

"Third floor," the woman told her. "City desk."

"Thanks," Kara said, going to the bank of elevators that filled the back wall.

She boarded the elevator with a group of bored looking men in dull business suits, getting off on the third floor and looking around the room, hoping to spot Clark. She didn't see her cousin, but she saw a familiar face coming out of an office marked 'Editor-in-Chief'.

She was about to go over to Oliver and say hello, when he was followed by a dark-haired woman with a scowl on her face. They seemed to be arguing about something, and from the looks of things, Oliver was winning the argument. Curious, Kara started to listen in closer, but Oliver broke off when he caught sight of her across the room. He looked shocked to see her, and Kara grinned as she crossed the room.

"You're back!" he greeted her, and to Kara's surprise, she got a quick hug that she returned. "How was your…trip?" he asked, clearly editing his words as he gave the woman beside him a sidelong glance.

"It didn't turn out the way I would have hoped," she said, choosing her words carefully in front of the strange woman. "Oliver, have you seen Clark?"

"Oh, you know Clark?" the woman interrupted, suddenly, and Kara really didn't like the predatory gleam in her eyes.

"She's an old friend of the family," Oliver lied, easily, before Kara could say anything.

Then, before the woman could respond, Oliver draped an arm over Kara's shoulders and steered her back across the bullpen.

"Clark's been busy with work all day," he explained, as they walked toward the elevators. "He and Lois have been out chasing leads on a story they're working on."

"Oliver, who was that woman?" Kara asked, craning her head around to look at the woman who was still watching them from the other side of the room. "And why is she so interested in Clark?"

"Tess Mercer," Oliver answered, punching the down button as they got on the elevator. "She's the new head of Luthorcorp. She's very ambitious."

"Well, that explains a lot," Kara grumbled. "Why is everyone connected with that place obsessed with Clark?"

"She also knows Clark's secret," Oliver told her, and Kara shot him a disbelieving look.

"She knows about Clark?" she repeated, incredulously. "Is she dangerous?"

"That's a matter of opinion," Oliver said, carefully, and Kara rolled her eyes.

"Why hasn't anyone done anything about this?" she demanded.

"You know, Clark's a big boy," Oliver pointed out. "You can't protect him forever."

"I can try," Kara muttered. Louder, she added, "I can't believe Lois would stand for this."

"Lois doesn't know," Oliver said, gesturing for her to precede him out of the elevator.

Kara shook her head. "Of course she doesn't."

"Hey, I think Clark's just trying to take their relationship slowly," Oliver defended his friend.

"Glaciers move faster," Kara retorted, and then Oliver's comment caught up with her. "Wait, he and Lois are in a relationship? An actual relationship?"

"They've been dating for about a month," Oliver told her, and Kara grinned, happily.

"It's about time," she said. "Where are we going?" she asked, a moment later, when Oliver held open the passenger door of his convertible for her.

"Shopping," Oliver said. "I need to buy a Christmas gift for the happy couple, and I figured we could catch up."

"Christmas gift," Kara echoed, and Oliver gave her a strange look.

"Because it's Christmas," he told her, and Kara flashed back to the date she'd seen on the calendar in the Daily Planet. She'd read the date, but the significance of it hadn't really registered until now.

"I'm home in time for Christmas?" she asked.

"And in time for Lois and Clark's first Christmas party as a couple," Oliver replied. "Ready to go?"

Three hours later, she stepped out of Oliver's convertible, nervously smoothing down the skirt of the dress she'd wistfully admired in one of the many stores Oliver had dragged her into – and that he'd bought as soon as her back was turned.

"You really shouldn't have bought this," she protested, for probably the fifth time since they'd left Metropolis.

Oliver dismissed her concerns with a shrug. "It was nothing."

She suspected for him that it really was nothing. She thought that she'd become fond of shopping in her time on Earth, but she had nothing on Oliver.

Coming around to her side of the car, Oliver held his arm out gallantly, and, laughing, Kara slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow.

"Shall we?" Oliver asked.

"Lead on," Kara told him.

As they walked up the driveway, past the cars already parked there, Kara saw the lights of the Christmas tree through the front window. It felt like coming home.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"Would you stop pacing?" Lois asked, exasperatedly, watching as Clark made a third circuit around the living room, glancing anxiously out the window each time he passed it. "You're making me nervous."

"Sorry," Clark apologized, sitting down on the recliner, but as soon as he was seated, he started jiggling his leg, drumming his fingers on his knee.

Lois heaved a sigh, grabbing a cushion off the couch and pitching it at Clark's head. Her boyfriend grunted when the cushion hit him in the face, and he turned to give Lois an exasperated look.

"What was that for?" he demanded.

"You need to relax," she told him. "We're having friends over for Christmas, not hosting a party for all of Metropolis's elite."

"It's just that I haven't seen some of these people in a while," Clark explained. "Bart, Dinah, and I kind of parted on bad terms last time we spoke."

"Smallville, they're your friends and they wouldn't be coming over here if they were mad at you for some reason," Lois said.

"You're probably right," Clark agreed.

"Of course I'm right," Lois said, confidently, and Clark laughed.

"Have I mentioned lately how lucky I am to have you?" he said, crossing the room over to Lois and wrapping his arms around her.

"Yeah," Lois said, leaning into his embrace. "But it never hurts to hear it, again."

She rested her head against his chest, breathing in the earthy scent that was purely Clark. He dropped his head down, to rest his chin against the top of her head, and Lois marveled at how well they fit together.

The ringing doorbell had them reluctantly breaking apart, and Lois went to the door, opening it to find a pair of men standing on the other side.

"Hey, Clark, she's just as hot as you said!" the shorter of the two called into the house, still grinning even when his companion whacked him on the back of the head.

"You must be Bart," Lois said, dryly.

"Victor Stone," his companion introduced himself, holding out a hand. "Clark's told us a lot about you, Lois."

"And AC and Oliver," Bart piped up, to Victor's exasperated eye roll.

"Ignore him," he advised, as they entered the house. "Bart's mouth moves faster than his brain."

"Anyone else here, yet?" Bart asked, looking around the house.

"You're the first ones," Clark said. "We're still waiting on AC, Dinah, Oliver, and-"

He trailed off, a horrified look crossing his face.

"My mom," he said, dread in his voice. "I forgot to pick Mom up at the airport." A quick glance at the clock on the wall had him groaning. "Her plane landed an hour ago."

Bart burst out laughing. "You're a dead man," he chortled.

Lois watched Clark dash into the other room, probably to grab his coat, and then she went to the door when the doorbell rang. Opening it, she smiled at the sight of Martha standing on the porch between AC and Dinah, and then held a finger to her lips as she ushered the trio inside.

"I have to drive to Metropolis," Clark was saying, his words tumbling over each other in a rush as he hurried around the house, shoving his arms into the sleeves of his coat and pulling his shoes on as he hopped awkwardly on one foot.

"Take a scarf," Lois suggested, with a glance out of the window. "It's snowing."

Muttering under his breath, Clark turned right around and darted back into his room, coming out a few seconds later with a scarf wound around his neck.

"Got your car keys?" Lois asked, biting back laughter when he spun around yet again and headed for the kitchen where he'd dropped them on the counter.

Then, Clark finally came back into the living room, stopping when he saw his mother already sitting on the couch. Seeing the dumbfounded look on his face, Lois gave up the fight and burst out laughing.

"Very funny," Clark told her, grumpily, taking the scarf off and draping it over the back of a chair, along with his coat.

"Couldn't help it," Lois told him.

"Have you been here, long?" Clark asked Martha, bending down to hug his mother.

"Long enough," she answered. "Merry Christmas, honey."

"Merry Christmas," Clark returned. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to meet your plane."

"When I realized that you forgot," Lois spoke up, "I called Ollie, who called AC. Figured it made more sense than you driving all the way out to Metropolis in this weather."

"Thank you," Clark told her. "So, we're just missing Oliver, then?"

"And speak of the devil," Lois said, when the doorbell rang a few seconds later.

Clark was the one to answer the door this time, and when he opened it, Clark was strangely silent. Then, she heard his quiet whisper of "Kara."

"Merry Christmas, Clark," the younger woman said, and it sounded like she was just as choked up as Clark was.

When Lois looked over at the door, Clark had his cousin wrapped up in a tight hug, and from the look of things, she was hanging on just as hard. When they finally parted, Kara shot her a watery smile over Clark's shoulder, and Lois wasn't surprised to see tears shining in the other woman's eyes.

He hadn't talked about it, but Lois knew that Kara being gone for so long had been hard on Clark. Whenever she'd asked, he'd always told her that he'd just talked to his cousin, but she could see the truth in his eyes. Until he'd opened the door a few seconds ago, he hadn't heard from Kara in over a year. But, none of it mattered now that she was back home.

"Looks like Oliver brought a guest," Bart spoke up from behind her.

"No," Lois said, disagreeing, watching as Clark escorted Kara into the house, the two talking in quiet whispers. "Everyone's finally here."


End file.
